25
ANNUAL REPORT 2015
ACTIVITIES
UBF
support Union of Arab Ban
ks’
De-Risking Seminar
The UAE Banks Federation, supported the Union of
Arab Banks in hosting a two-day seminar on de-
risking. The seminar addressed both the causes
and impact of de-risking, as well as ways to control
its adverse effects on banks and their customers.
The aim of the seminar was to seek a common
method of managing such situations to avoid
unnecessary loss of business or hardship to bona-
fide customers.
The seminar was addressed by a number of high
profile international and regional speakers, with a
keynote presentation by Mr. Ajay Badyal, Compliance
Officer Head of Assurance and Advisory Services at
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The seminar
was sponsored by Al Masraf Bank and attended by
UBF and other banks from the region.
UBF and SWIFT equip
UAE SWIFT Users
Group
with solutions to banking issues
In partnership with SWIFT, the UAE Banks
Federation has held a schedule of events on
SWIFT related services for representatives of the
UAE SWIFT Users Group over the course of the
year, the seminars provided member banks with
hands-on expertise in a range of SWIFT platforms.
In April there was a briefing about the impact
of global regulations and discussion on the
challenges faced by banks as they manage
increasingly onerous regulatory requirements
aimed at eliminating money laundering and
terrorist financing.
A hot topic was the ‘know-your-customer’
(KYC) regulations. KYC regulations require banks
to collect and maintain up-to-date information
about every institution they deal with. Doing
this and performing due diligence checks on
correspondent banking partners is costly and
time-consuming, and the effort is duplicated by
individual banks around the world.
Another event held with SWIFT in 2015 was
a series of workshops in May that addressed
support and business continuity strategies to
help UAE banks and financial institutions ensure
the safety and security of their operations, as
well as to optimise their integration with SWIFT
services. The last collaboration with SWIFT took
place in December and saw representatives of the
UAE SWIFT Users Group join a discussion about
global financial crime regulations.
